


Loser/Lover

by Duck_Life



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Broken Bones, Bullying, Gen, Puppy Love, totally not based on the fact that i think jack dylan grazer and joshua rush look alike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 02:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12807216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Cyrus lets the wrong person write on his cast. Jonah helps. Based loosely on a scene from "IT" (2017).





	Loser/Lover

Cyrus has never broken a bone before, and odd as it is, his fractured thumb makes him  _ ecstatic _ . It’s like he’s gone through life terrified of getting hurt, and now that it’s happened… he’s fine. The big bad monster under the bed turned out to be not so bad. 

(It doesn’t hurt that Jonah looks cute when he’s worried.)

But more to the point, having a broken thumb makes him a little bit of a celebrity the next day at school. He already has the most important signatures on the cast, Andi’s block letters and Buffy’s loopy cursive and Jonah’s shaky scrawl circling the plaster. At school, he gets the girl who sits beside him in homeroom to sign her name, and his lab partner in Pre-AP Biology adds his name to the cramped space. 

People are giving him sympathy; people are giving him  _ attention _ . It’s like a dream come true. Even his parents’ mollycoddling felt kind of nice. 

He should’ve known the niceness wouldn’t last. 

At lunch, a girl he doesn’t really know approaches him and asks if she can sign his cast. “Sure!” he says with a big goofy grin, holding out his thumb. She grabs his wrist and shields him from what she’s writing, and because he’s Cyrus and he’s naive, he doesn’t think anything of it. 

“There, perfect!” she smirks, and then she runs away, Sharpie in hand. 

Cyrus looks down at his hand… and feels his stomach drop. In big letters that take up all the space on the cast, even covering up Andi, Buffy and Jonah’s names, she’s written LOSER. 

For the rest of the day, Cyrus keeps his head down and his hand hidden, either stuffing it in his hoodie sleeve or keeping it under his desk. The rush he felt from getting his  _ first _ broken bone has completely dissipated, and in its place he just feels stupid. He feels like a loser. 

After school, Cyrus books it to the Spoon. If anything can make him feel better today, it’s baby taters and a chocolate shake. Amber’s not there… which is a small blessing. He doesn’t want to know what she might try to write on his cast. 

While Cyrus sits and waits for his food, a familiar face shows up in the door. “Hey, Cy-Guy,” Jonah greets him, sliding into the seat across from him. Jonah’s smile always makes Cyrus think of the sun. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” Cyrus lies. 

“How’s your hand?”

“Fine.” 

“Man of few words,” Jonah jokes. The waitress shows up then with a basket of baby taters and Cyrus’ shake, and when she sets it down on the table, Cyrus instinctively reaches out with his left hand. Jonah zeroes in on the lettering, and Cyrus immediately squeaks in embarrassment and shoves his hand under the table. 

“Thank you,” he tells the waitress, taking the shake from her with his good hand. 

Jonah waits until she leaves before reaching across the table and grabbing Cyrus’ wrist to take a look at his cast. His brow creases when he sees the word. “Who did this?” he says quietly.

“I don’t know her name,” Cyrus mumbles, not able to look Jonah in the face. “I think she’s an eighth grader.”

“She’s a jerk, is what she is,” Jonah says, and Cyrus feels mortified… but he’s not gonna lie, the feel of Jonah’s fingers on his wrist is kind of nice. He’s got Frisbee calluses. “Here. I can fix it.”

Jonah pulls a Sharpie out of his backpack and takes the cap off with his teeth. Cyrus finds himself so fixated on how adorable Jonah looks with the marker cap sticking out of his mouth that he doesn’t look down at his cast until Jonah’s done. 

He added a big letter V, so instead of LOSER the cast now reads LOVER.

Cyrus blushes all the way to his ears. “Oh,” he says, not really sure what else to say. “That’s. Different.” 

“Yeah, well, it’s ’cause, you know, you’re a lover, not a fighter,” Jonah shrugs, putting his marker back in his bag. 

Cyrus bristles. “I could be a fighter.”

“Nah, no you couldn’t,” Jonah says warmly. “That’s why I like you so much.” 

Andi and Buffy walk in the door then, but Cyrus is totally lost in his own little world.  _ That’s why I like you so much _ . Jonah just said he  _ likes _ him, and Cyrus knows that it isn’t like  _ that _ , it isn’t the way  _ he _ likes Jonah and it isn’t the way Jonah likes Andi. But…  _ That’s why I like you so much _ . 

While Andi launches into a story about Pops and Cece and Buffy swipes a tater, Cyrus looks down at his cast. LOVER. Yeah. Yeah, that fits. 

For the rest of the day he feels like he’s walking on air. 


End file.
